In a Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network, a mobile node (MN) may enter a foreign subnet, discover a foreign agent (FA) node by listening to Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) messages, and register itself with the FA node and a home agent (HA) node. The FA node may include a router coupled to the subnet in which the MN is currently located, and the HA node may include a router coupled to a home subnet to which the MN is assigned.
Upon successful registration of the MN, a remote node, which intends to communicate with the MN, may forward messages to the HA node. The HA node may encapsulate and tunnel the messages to the FA node, which, in turn, may relay the messages to the MN using a layer 2 network. In the reverse direction, messages from the MN may be sent directly to the remote node.